How Being a Designer Shaped My Leadership Style in Marketing

I didn’t start my career as a marketer. And I’m thankful for that.

I was a designer. Full fledged graphic and UIUX designer. I loved my job. I led amazing teams. My life was filled with creativity.

But now, transitioning from a leadership role in design to marketing has been nothing but a transformative journey. My design background didn’t just stay in the past though, it became the foundation of how I manage, strategize, and solve problems today. Here’s how I made use of what I’ve learnt (and still learning) from Design and how I’ve applied it to Marketing:

Solving Problems > Finding Solutions

As a designer, I’ve always been trained that understanding the problem is more important than rushing to a solution. If you’re solving solutions, you’re not really customer-oriented because you don’t know who you’re actually solving it for. Many times, you will hear others say, “I have this awesome solution, let’s figure a way to sell this to customers”. Sure, you might be able to spin something off, but until you figure out the who, the what will never be in line. And now in marketing, how this translates for us is to ensure we dig deep into actual customer pain points and what the market gaps really are before crafting any sort of campaigns. Ample research, feedback and listening to what they are saying needs to happen first, and it’s really all about asking the right questions to unlock better results for your brand and product. So, the whole spiel about going viral? Sure, we can always try but it’s not just throwing something out blind.

Lead with Design Thinking, & Back it with Data

Design thinking has been my guiding principle in leadership, ever since I started really delving deep into design. Tldr, this is simply having empathy for the customer, active ideation and brainstorms, and prototyping multiple solutions, and data that comes from testing then fuels decisions. It’s amazing how many don’t understand how this approach can shape up strategies, even in marketing. Combining creative exploration with analytical rigor then helps build strategies that are both innovative and effective to whatever tactical marketing we’re doing. In marketing, I guess we call it the ‘Test and Learn’, which is pretty much the same approach as design thinking. Create the hypothesis, brainstorm solutions, do a test, learn and get results. Rinse and repeat. There you go!

Divergence and Convergence as Core Processes

The divergence-convergence framework is also another of my bread and butter methods. How this usually happens is that I will ensure I run frequent brainstorming of a wide array of topics with my team, and them narrowing them down to the most feasible + impactful ideas based on everyone’s alignment and voting. We always start with a problem statement, an objective, along with some principles to keep in mind. For my brand ideas, I’ve always been giving them a principle of ‘if you can replace our brand’s name and the idea still works, this idea ain’t right for us’. This structured approach has become integral to my team’s marketing campaign planning, simply because it fosters ample creativity without losing focus of the big picture, and creates an environment where everyone is comfortable to share their craziest ideas, while the PICs can then synthesize the ideas and summarise them into an epic idea altogether.

My Key Takeaway?

My design roots have indeed crafted me into a more empathetic and adaptable leader in marketing. Leading by customer-first thinking and having the space to brainstorm ideas (which is tbh critical in every creative mind!), alongside the process of testing and learning, this has helped me gain my initial footing as a marketing leader in the startup, and I’m looking forward to grow more with the rest of my folks. And yes, I still love design. Through and through.

So, whether you're a designer stepping into marketing or a marketer looking to refine your leadership, adopting these principles can hopefully help you transform and evolve your own approach too.